This invention relates to a swift wheel locking device for a golf cart, particularly to one having a wheel axle and a bracket member swiftly locking and unlocking the wheel axle by means of a control member moving a locking member to lock and unlock the wheel axle.
A golf cart is indispensable for golf players to carry various golf clubs around a golf course. A conventional golf cart shown in FIG. 6 has a releasable wheel assembly having an axle 11 combined with a bracket member 10 attached to a lower end of a leg of a golf cart. The axle 11 has an annular groove 12 formed in an outer end for a C-shaped ring 13 to securely keep the wheel 14 on the axle 11.
Further, as shown in FIG. 7, when the conventional golf cart having the above-mentioned releasable wheel assembly is to be packaged for transportation, the golf cart body has a height LA and a width L1, and a height LA+LB and a width L1+L2 after the brackets 10 are combined with the cart body, necessitating a large carton for packing the whole golf cart, resulting in a larger cost for packaging and transporting.
There is another conventional releasable wheel assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 5,029,946 filed in July, 1991 shown in FIG. 8. It includes a bracket member 4 having a lower solid portion 41, a coil spring 53 and a control member 5 contained in the lower solid portion 41 for control and unlocking an axle 11. The control member 5 is T-shaped, having a flange 51 formed in an upper end for pressing the locking member 5 manually, and a key 52 in the form of a plate formed with spaced slots 521 and 522 extending down from the flange 51. The first slot 521 is dimensioned to allow a relative movement between the key 52 and a rivet 42 along a longitudinal direction of the key 52 and the second slot 522 is dimensioned to allow the axle 11 passing through the key 52 from an outer side portion 524 of a larger diameter and the groove 112 of the axle 11 being engaged by an inner side portion 523 of smaller diameter.
In operation, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the flange 51 is pressed manually to overcome biasing forces of the coil spring 53 and move the locking member 5 inwardly, the inner side 523 of the second slot 522 is disengaged from the groove 112 and the axle 11 is located within the outer side portion 524, the wheel set 3 can be removed by retracting the axle 11 from the bracket member 4. The rivet 42 serves as a guider for the locating slot 522 of the key 52 of the locking member 5 in assembly and disassembly operations of the wheel set 3.